ANTI-SUICIDE FIGHT PRAISED IN JERSEY

By JOSEPH F. SULLIVAN, Special to the New York Times

Published: May 29, 1988

TRENTON, May 27—
A two-year effort to understand and prevent adolescent suicide has concluded that school-based programs in which mental health professionals and educators work side by side can significantly reduce the number of teen-age deaths.

The Governor's Advisory Council on Youth Suicide Prevention, which recently released its final report, said students and school personnel welcomed its efforts to focus attention on the problem. Of 1,140 students exposed to the program in six schools throughout the state, 89 percent said the program should be brought to other students. Students in urban schools were the most enthusiastic, according to the council report.

The project, which could lead to the establishment of county-based suicide prevention programs, has attracted national attention and has served as a guide for a model program being prepared by the Federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Ann Garland, a research scientist and project director of the Suicide Prevention Evaluation Unit at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, said the New Jersey program was the first in the country to evaluate the effectiveness of school-based mental-health programs dealing with the suicide problem.

''There are about 100 of these programs across the country, but this was the first controlled evaluation we know of, and the results have been very beneficial,'' she said. Students Found Receptive to Help

The program demonstrated that there is no basis for the fear that talking about suicide could inspire suicide attempts, officials said. It also showed that students are more knowledgeable about suicide than officials had thought, and that they are more willing to seek help and to refer friends for help than was thought.

''They especially like the idea of a hot line and are much more willing to call a hotline number and recommend a friend who might be in need of help than we were aware of,'' Ms. Garland said.

The average age of the students who participated in the project was 14.7 years. About 45 percent were white, 27 percent were black, and 22 percent were Hispanic.

The chairman of the advisory council, Gary W. Lamson, vice president for mental health services at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, said there are about 22 suicide attempts daily among persons 15 to 24 years old in New Jersey, and two suicide deaths a week.

''About 6 percent of the students exposed to our programs during the last years were identified as being members of high-risk groups with a propensity toward suicide,'' Mr. Lamson said. 'We Broke the Code'

A blind questionnaire given to students in the pilot programs identified 72 students who indicated they had suicidal feelings. ''We broke the code,'' Mr. Lamson said, and referred the students for counseling.

He said none of the students, who used numbers instead of their names on the questionnaire, resented being identified. ''They were glad we intervened,'' he said.

The council, aided by staff from the State Departments of Human Services and Education, worked with parents, students and school personnel. The programs used the questionnaires to evaluate knowledge of the warning signs of teen-age suicide, test attitudes, identify students at risk of committing suicide and increase the awareness of warning signs and the availability of professional help.

Maureen Underwood, a clinical social worker who is coordinator of the New Jersey project, said training in recognizing students who may be contemplating suicide was given to school bus drivers, cafeteria workers and custodians as well as to teachers and administrators.

''Boys are more likely to reach out for help by being aggressive and 'acting out' than are girls, who are more likely to be clinically depressed and withdrawn,'' she said. Help for Bergenfield

The advisory council helped Bergenfield residents and students deal with the shock that followed the suicide of four high school students in March 1987. Its work in Bergenfield also drew the attention of the Centers for Disease Control, which asked the council to conduct a workshop dealing with such ''cluster suicides'' for officials from other states. The meeting, held in Newark last November, attracted people from as far as Texas, Minnesota and Nebraska.

A study of suicides of people 19 years old and under in New Jersey, New York City and five nearby counties and southern Connecticut between June 1984 and June 1986 is also being conducted by the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons under a $600,000 grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health.

Dr. Madelyn Gould, co-investigator for the project, said the study is not complete but preliminary findings show that about half of the 146 suicide victims were involved with drugs or alcohol. A high proportion were school dropouts or came from families that had a history of suicide attempts or actual suicides.

State Senator Richard J. Codey, Democrat of West Orange, who sponsored legislation creating the advisory council, said he will introduce a bill to appropriate $500,000 to continue its work and expand its services to more school districts.